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For the last 20 years, attorney Bill Marler has represented victims of nearly every large foodborne illness outbreak in the United States, securing $600,000,000 for victims of E. coli, Salmonella, and other illnesses linked to tainted food. Marler is an outspoken advocate for food safety, and maintains the Food Safety Site and the award-winning Marler Blog.

He's picked up a safety tip or two along the way - as well as a definitive personal do-not-eat list.

1. Always mistrust claims that some type of food is safer or better for you than other food. Someone is usually hiding something from you.

2. Be on guard and do not be afraid to wash your hands or wipe down a grocery cart.

3. Pay attention to cross-contamination in your shopping and your kitchen. Use the plastic bags in the store to keep food separate.

4. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

5. Wash your produce well and cook your meat even hotter.

6. When going out to eat, it is OK to check the restaurant's safety record and to send back food that is not properly prepared. Your life may depend on it.

Marler's do-not-eat list

People ask me all the time what I do not eat. Here is my list: raw milk, unpasteurized juices, sprouts, ground meat of any kind, bagged leafy green and food that is processed so much that you question if it is food.

soundoff(226 Responses)

dontforgetaboutparasites

I recently found out that I had foot-long parasitic round worms living in my gut for the last 6-9 months! They are very common in third world, tropical countries but very rare in the United States due to our regulations that do not allow produce to be grown in soil fertilized by human feces. I have not been out of the country for over a year and I have never been to a third world or tropical country. The doctors were baffled and I was in a great deal of pain intermittently for the better part of a year. CHECK YOU FOOD SOURCES.

May 27, 2014 at 11:56 am |

twiceshynow

Picked up e.coli bladder infection. All docs at UC Davis were willing to do was just enough to suppress it, even after I went onto renal failure from constant resurgence of infection any time I stopped antibiotics. Only now will they listen, but it doesn't mean I will have access to an aggressive antibiotic(abx)80% of abx in USA are fed to HEALTHY farm animals, so they'll survive in filthy, cramped conditions, & turn max. Profits. Yet it is the humans in this nation that literally can't get enough access to antibiotics to save our lives. Much of the tidal wave of renal failure we're seeing is simmering "sub clinical" infection. Meaning no fever, and slowly advancing damage.